Wednesday, October 18, 2006

EA Clarifies, Sort of

From Joystiq:
Electronic Arts statement (unedited):
The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.

BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses.

Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement.

That's clear, and it doesn't sound unreasonable. So why didn't they say that in the first place, and why does the disclaimer/flyer stake out additional ground beyond the reach of this statement? And why do people need to uninstall a Windows Security Update to correct an "application error"?

Has anyone EVER played a game where the readme advised them to uninstall a Windows Security Update?

[NOTE: a DQ reader sent me a link to a Microsoft hot fix that indicates the Security Update in question could crash programs that limited the size of the application stack below a certain value. For more information, see this post]

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